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Astronomers can take the temperature of a star by measuring the stars brightness through two filters that pass radiation in the blue and visual regions of the visible spectrum. From the ratio of these brightnesses, a simple cubic relationship yields the temperature of the star, in Kelvin degrees as follows: T(x) = 9391 8350 x + 5300 x 1541 x
2 3

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This formula works for star temperatures between 9,000 and 3,500 Kelvin.

Problem 1 - From the indicated temperature range, what is the domain of this function?

Problem 2 The sun has a temperature of 5770 K. What is the corresponding value for x?

Problem 3 To save computation time, an astronomer uses the approximation 2 for T(x) based on a quadratic formula given by F(x) = 1844x 6410x +9175. What is the formula that gives the percentage error, P(x), between F(x) and T(x)?

Problem 4 A what temperature, T(x), does P(x) defined in Problem 3 have its maximum absolute percentage error in the domain of x: [0,1.4], and what is this value?

Space Math

http://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov

Answer Key

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Problem 1 - From the indicated temperature range, what is the domain of this function? Answer: We have to solve T(x) = 9,000 and T(x) = 3,500. This can be done using a graphing calculator by programming T(X) into an Excel spreadsheet. Acceptable answers for [9000,3500] should be near [0.06, 1.50]

Problem 2 The sun has a temperature of 5770 K. What is the corresponding value for x? Answer: T(x) = 5770, so x = 0.67

Problem 3 To save computation time, an astronomer uses the approximation for 2 T(x) based on a quadratic formula given by F(x) = 1844x 6410x +9175. What is the formula that gives the percentage error, P(x) between F(x) and T(x)? Answer: P(x) = 100% x (estimate actual) / actual = 100 (F(x)-T(x)) / T(x) = 100(1844x 6410x +9175 (9391 8350 x + 5300 x 1541 x )) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2 3 9391 8350 x + 5300 x 1541 x
3 2 2 2 3

100 [1541 x 3456 x + 1940 x 216] = -----------------------------------------------------------2 3 9391 8350 x + 5300 x 1541 x

Problem 4 A what temperature, T(x), does P(x) defined in Problem 3 have its maximum absolute percentage error in the domain of x: [0,1.4], and what is this value? Answer: Students can use a graphing calculator to display this function, or use Excel to program and plot it, to manually determine the maximum. The graph shows a local minimum of -4.6% at x=1.1, and a local maximum of +1.55% at x=0.4. The absolute maximum error is then 4.6% at x=1.1. The function T(X) evaluated at x=1.1 yields T = 4,600 K.

Space Math

http://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov